Hellbrunn Palace and its trick fountains

What it is

Archbishop Markus Sittikus built Hellbrunn in the early 17th century as a pleasure palace south of the city, and filled it with water pranks: stone tables that soak the guests, grottoes with mechanical birds that sing with the water and a theatre of automata driven by the current. The guided tour of the trick fountains lasts about 50 minutes and comes with an audioguide on your phone, also in Spanish; add half an hour for the palace exhibition and, if you like, an hour for the Monatsschlössl museum, ten minutes' walk through the park.

Prices, hours and how to get there

Admission costs €16.50; ages 4 to 18, €6.50; family of two adults and one child, €36.50, and €3.50 for each additional child. It is open from 28 March to 1 November, from 9:30 to 17:30 in April and October, until 18:30 in May, June and September and until 19:00 in July and August; the last tour leaves an hour earlier. In winter the trick fountains and the palace close (they reopen on 25 March 2027), but the park is open all year from 6:30 to 21:00. You can visit in any weather.

From the centre (Rathaus stop) or the station, bus 25 takes 25 or 30 minutes. By bike or on foot, along the Hellbrunner Allee avenue from Nonntal. Parking costs €3 for the first two hours.